The Lafayette track and field team was back in action this past Saturday hosting the annual Lafayette Tri Meet. Both the men’s and women’s teams finished third, scoring 61 and 67 points, respectively.

“My teammates got on the line and in the circle with the will to succeed and they delivered on all counts,” said senior Danny Hullihan, who placed fifth in sprints in the 400-meter dash with a time of 56.01. “I think we even had some Top-10 All-Time performances—in itself that’s something, but you’ve got to remember it was pretty windy that day. Overall, last Saturday was just another venue for incredible results by the Leopards.”

Lafayette trailed rival Lehigh in the meet, as the Mountain Hawks placed first on both the men’s and women’s side with scores of 153 and 163, respectively.

On the women’s side, sophomore Rachel Hurley placed atop the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:26.92, scoring seven points and earning the lone win for the women’s team. Junior Cassandra Wilk followed close behind in the same event, earning a fifth place finish at 12:08.19 and adding two points.

Senior Olivia Barney, who scored over half of her team’s points in the Lehigh Easter Races, placed second in the hammer throw with a toss of 50.33 meters, adding five points. She tacked on a fourth place finish later on in the discus, adding three more points.

Sophomore Meredith McGee added four points to the team total with identical fifth place finishes in the hammer throw and shot put. Sophomore Grace O’Mara placed fourth in the shot put and added three points, and also finished seventh in the discus for an additional two points.

In the pole vault, senior Julia Knowles placed third with a top mark of 2.89 meters, good for four points. More contributions came in the jumps department, as senior Katie Ullman finished third in the high jump with a best leap of 1.60 meters, scoring four more points.

The 1,500-meter run saw two Leopards finish in the top six with junior Autumn Sands finishing third and senior Lizzie Harmon placing sixth, combining for seven points.

In the 800-meter run, sophomores Katie Riley and Alex Avery placed seventh and 11th, respectively, and combined for six points. Senior Liv Palma finished second overall in the 5,000-meter run and earned five points, while freshman Emma Lorey finished two spots behind in fourth, adding another three points.

In the 400-meter sprint, junior Katie Ellmaker finished seventh and chipped in two more points, and the team of Avery, Ellmaker, senior Emily Becker and junior Julia Eustace placed fourth in the 4×400-meter relay which ultimately added the last five points for the women.

The men’s team also had one win and a number of top finishes during Saturday’s Tri Meet.

Senior James Dailey won the javelin throw with his top mark reaching 16 feet further than the second place finisher, scoring seven points in the event. Two places behind Dailey was sophomore Andrew Bowsher who placed third and added four points.

In the hammer throw, sophomores Devin Rosemarin and Andrew Swiniarski earned fifth and sixth place finishes, respectively, and combined for five points.

Swiniarski also finished eighth in the shot put, scoring one point, while  fellow sophomore Fischer Biggs placed fifth and added three points. In the last throwing event, the discus, Biggs led the way for Lafayette with a fifth place finish, while Bowsher and Swiniarski placed sixth and seventh, respectively.

The pole vault saw another top-three finish for the Leopards with sophomore Mark Sabin placing second and adding five more points.

On the running side for the men, the Leopards also earned two of the top three spots in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with junior Austin Barry finishing second and senior Michael Neeson placing third. Barry scored five points in the event and Neeson added four.

In the 1,5000-meter run, senior Ryan Branch finished second overall and added five points while sophomore Bobby Oehrlein finished fourth, adding three points.

Junior Ryan Murphy finished fourth in the 800-meter run, scoring four points, while classmate Jesse Schmeizer finished sixth overall and added three more to the Lafayette score. In the sprints section, Hullihan scored two points and finished fifth.

The men’s side concluded the day with the 4×400-meter relay. Murphy, sophomore Andrew Massaro and freshmen Willie Marina and Sean Hamilton finished fifth overall, good for another four points.

“I’d say our biggest strength right now is the fact that we’re not a work in progress,” Hullihan said. “Our marks and times the past few weeks have confirmed that the training we’ve maintained over the wildest circumstances worked.”

The Leopards head to rival Lehigh tomorrow for one final duel meet before the Patriot League Championships commence next weekend.